Keller Williams, a Texas-based real estate franchise Keller Williams, announced Thursday that it will expand further into Europe through a new master franchise in Germany. This marks the 18th franchise for the firm in Europe.
In a prepared statement, Keller Williams Worldwide (KWW), president William E. Soteroff said that ten years after the launch of KWW’s global expansion has been a success.
Swen Nicolaus, founder and managing director, and principal regional operating principal for KW’s Germany division, will be leading KW’s Germany division.
Nicolaus stated that he was delighted to be able “to bring the most successful broker platform anywhere in the world to Europe’s largest and most successful economy.”
Nicolaus’s career spans over two decades in finance and real estate. He has held many leadership positions, including chief financial officer of digital mortgage bank Molo Finance, director of capital markets at Funding Circle, the United Kingdom; head mortgage portfolio trading at Computershare in UK; portfolio manager, chief investment officer at JPMorgan Chase, as well as a nearly ten-year stint in various roles at Deutsche Bank.
Swen is an ideal partner, who will implement our proven models and systems, world-class training, and the robust benefits Command–our smart multilingual CRM-plus solution for growing real estate businesses in Germany–with Swen,” Soteroff stated.
Keller Williams plans to open its first center in the second quarter 2023. It will also be focusing on opening additional locations in the top seven markets.
According to the statement, KWW also plans to expand into Africa and Central and South America.
According to a press release, the company currently has 160 markets centers and 4,806 agents in Europe. Master franchises are available in the United Kingdom of Portugal, Spain France, Monaco and Poland.
Founded in 1983, KW currently employs more than 1,100 people and has over 200,000 associates. The brokerage’s international division, KWW has grown by 20.5% since January 2021 with more than 18,000 agents in countries other than the U.S.
According to the statement, the franchise’s agents in Canada and the U.S. closed 77,800 transactions in 2022, up 22.5% and $15.7 billion in volume, an increase of more than 29% over 2021.
Keller Williams and RE/MAX topped the 2022 RealTrends 500 listing of the 50 top one-year movers based on percentage transaction sides.